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88 MEMOIBS OF RACHEL.
her own few but brave partisans retorted to the full whenever
Rachel came on. Both camps anxiously awaited the decisive third act. It amply justified their solicitude. The silence that reigned throughout the house was almost oppressive. Elizabeth—Maxima—pale, disheartened, seeing too well the tide was against her, feeling instinctively she was doomed, knowing her incapacity to resist or escape the impending ava- lanche, trembled with impotent rage. Every word- she utter- ed revealed the bitterness and grief of her burdened heart. Marie Stuart—Eachel—on her side, passive and motionless, accepted all the withering contumely heaped upon her; with bent head, folded arms, and steady, calm, glittering eye, she waited—waited patiently—but there was something so ap- palling, so deadly in the look, that a shudder went through the audience; every one felt that the patience was that of the tiger secure of his prey, who has noted the very place where his fangs will be thrust into the quivering flesh of the victim. When, at last, it was her turn to speak, the very ones who had expected the explosion were thunderstruck. No pen can render the phrensied passion, the terrific vehemence, the scorching indignation with which she poured forth her pent- up, fury. Her voice, lately so weak and exhausted, strength- ened by her imperious will, hurled forth anathemas that fell like sledge-hammers on the crushed Maxime, who, breathless, amazed, terrified beyond measure, gazed at her with wild eyes. The scene was magnificent, and beggars description. No one could have believed such meaning could be given to the pale, meagre, wishy-washy translation of Le Brun; no one ever suspected the strength, the fire contained in Rachel. Her ir- ritated self-love had developed all her resources; she had at- tained every perfection save one, the most prized, most valu- able—tears. True tenderness, real feeling, have their source in the heart; they do not spring from self-love and irritated vanity.
The defeat of Maxime was too complete to be denied, .even
by the critic who had so loudly proclaimed her superiority; but he palliated his want of judgment and softened her fall by all«giag thai the character was unsuited to her, as her chief gift was the power of expressing feeling, pathetic sentiment, |
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